Jessaca Willis's Blog - Posts Tagged "freebie"
The Silver Amulet Short Story (2600 words)
Greetings readers!
I recently joined a monthly short story writing "competition" group for fun to get in some more writing time (as I spend most of my time these days editing book two of The Awakened Quarter: Puppets Dream).
This month, our themes were alchemy (turning metal into gold) and psychometry (getting visions from touching objects. In addition, June is also LGBTQ month, so I wanted to write something that would show my support for the LGBTQ community, while also touch on our group's themes. What I discovered are some new and exciting characters that I am honestly looking forward to writing more about (in the near/distant future).
Because I can see this story becoming something larger, I thought I'd share it with you all here. I hope you enjoy!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE SILVER AMULET (unedited)
By Jessaca Willis
With her hands clasped together, Amaya’s voice was barely more than a whisper, as she sang alongside the thousands of other people that flooded the streets like a colorful river.
Like most years she attended Pride, Amaya refrained from wearing anything too extravagant—beyond the rainbow tutu she wore over her leggings—in an effort not to draw too much attention to herself. Not that it was a real concern. When people were at Pride, they were swallowed up in the excitement of their own celebrating, their own freedoms, their own friends and conversations and marching, to notice anyone going out of their way to be overlooked.
Regardless of her desire to stay out of the spotlight, Amaya still loved attending the parade more than anything. It was the one place where she didn’t feel like such an outsider. Even here she had to be careful though, because even here she didn’t truly belong. With so many people nearby, she kept her hands tucked tightly against her body, despite the gloves she wore as a precaution.
Even though Amaya was in a swarm of people so thick that she could only see the back of the heads in front of her, the glint of metal as something fell to the ground still caught her attention. Having little interest in getting trampled, Amaya bent over and snapped back up with the object in hand before the crowd around her had a chance to take another step. With the item tucked tightly against her chest, Amaya weaved through the dense parade and made her way to the sidewalk.
She uncurled her hands, revealing an amulet inside, one simple by design, with just a few swirls of metal encasing a giant opalescent gem.
Amaya surveyed the crowd. She hoped to find someone searching for their lost jewelry, but sadly, she saw no one. Or at least, none that were visible from where she stood.
When she returned her attention to the amulet, her eyes grew wide with recognition. That gem wasn’t just any normal gem. Raising it overhead, Amaya let it catch a ray of light, clouds of blue and purple shifting inside it and confirming her suspicions. A moonstone.
Whoever this amulet belonged to would be very upset when they realized they no longer had it. She looked out over the sea of heads again, but with all of the ribbons and banners, and the stunning headdresses of a group of drag queens that were strutting by, she couldn’t tell if anyone was looking for the charm.
Her throat went dry. There was only one way she would be able to find the person.
Turning her back to the parade, Amaya squeezed herself into the corner of a storefront, and with extreme caution, took off one of her gloves, one finger at a time. Her bare hand hovered over the amulet, uncertain if what she was about to do was a smart idea. After all, she was in the middle of the city, amidst a bunch of strangers, and there was no telling what touching the talisman would do to her. But the longer she waited, the further away its owner would become.
Without another thought, Amaya’s hand plummeted to the amulet.
Everything around her disappeared, as a new world flashed into view. A new world, but the same one. A vision of the parade’s future. She recognized some of the same floats and outfits she’d already seen earlier in the day. Only now, people had brought out their glow sticks and strobe lights, as the moon had started to replace the sun overhead.
If Amaya had thought people were celebratory before, now, hours into the thrill of the day, they were euphoric—Until a snarl rumbled through the air.
Screams followed, the kind that only came moments before death. Within seconds, the peaceful and jubilant parade became a terrifying nightmare. People ran in every direction, not looking back, not bothering who they were leaving behind or knocking over along the way. All that mattered was survival, something none of them were guaranteed much longer.
Amaya shoved her way through the scattering people, searching for what she already knew they were running from, but needing to see it anyways.
Standing eight feet tall, in the middle of the street, and looming over five dead bodies already, was the werewolf the moonstone was meant to protect. It spun around to meet her gaze. But if she expected it to look menacingly, she was mistaken, because the only thing that filled the half-human, half-wolf’s eyes was remorse.
“Help me,” those eyes seemed to scream.
Then the vision cleared, and Amaya found herself leaning against the cool bricks of the store again, without a clue as to how she would find the werewolf before the sun set.
Growing up, Amaya had always wondered why she was so different from all the other children. While they were playing tag and patty-cake, Amaya was kept in isolation and labeled haphephobic—the fancy word for being afraid of being touched—and “prone to dissociative states.” She had always wondered “why me?”
But perhaps now she had an answer. Perhaps this power, today, could be used for something good.
Meanwhile, two floats and a group of fabulously-feathered drag queens ahead, Mavis danced uninhibited against each stranger she crossed with only one thought on her mind: who to pilfer next.
Although Mavis had thought the parade would make for easy money considering how many people would be there, what she hadn’t counted for was that many of the costumes and outfits people were wearing weren’t conducive to valuables. Outfits crafted entirely out of fishnet, spandex, and even body paint, meant that people had to leave anything of value at home. Not that that’s how everyone was dressed, but enough people that it meant she had to be strategic about her targets and how she made her way to them.
With the song slowing to an end, Mavis turned around to face her partner, giving her a coy wink as she leaned in and uttered in her ear, “Happy Pride!”
Though Mavis meant every word, the real reason she let her lips brush against the blushing girl’s ear was to distract her enough that she wouldn’t notice Mavis reaching into her purse, grabbing her wallet, and shoving it into her own macramé bag. Her plan seemed to work, because the girl was still swooning as she twirled off, disappearing in the crowd.
When she was certain the girl was out of sight, Mavis reached into her purse to ogle her spoils from the day thus far. She started with the wallet, pocketing the seven dollars cash before discarding the leather pouch to the ground.
Feeling the worn edges of the book she always kept on hand, Mavis let her hand brush past her brother’s journal, hoping one day to have enough money to hire someone to decipher it. Maybe then she’d have a clue as to where he was.
Next, she admired a number of rings and watches. These items tended to be a little more risky to take in the moment, but less likely to raise suspicion later, especially during events like these because most of her victims would assume they’d fallen off, never once suspecting the sexy minx with the purple mohawk braid they’d been dancing with before their items went missing.
The last memento Mavis reached for though, was by far the coolest she’d ever pocketed. Never before had she seen a gemstone so large as the one in the pendant she’d found earlier.
But when she reached into her purse, she couldn’t find it. Scraping along the bottom of the bag, her hand trailed over every ring and watch, the wad of cash, and even a handful of crumbs from a granola bar from who-knows-when, but the amulet was gone.
“No. No, no, no!” she yelled, her voice drowned out by the other shouts and yips.
Out of everything she’d taken, that amulet had been the only thing of any real value. Everything else was just chump change. She’d use the cash to buy some dinner, before settling home for the evening where she’d use her magic to convert all the silver jewelry into gold to be sold later, earning maybe another week’s worth in rent. But the amulet—now that would fetch a pretty penny as was, without need for alchemy. That amulet was going to earn her enough money to finally hire a translator for her brother’s journal.
Which was why she needed to find it.
Whipping her braid over one shoulder, Mavis began scouring the ground, retracing her steps back through the parade as best she could. Between all the glitter and sequins left in the wake of the marchers, every step she took gave her a new glimmer of hope, only to be snuffed out when she realized whatever item had caught her eye wasn’t the amulet.
“We have to go,” someone whispered.
Sensing the urgency behind his words, Mavis peered over her shoulder to find a familiar man and woman, recognizable by their rainbow face paint and wigs.
“We can get you another one,” he said again, gently tugging at the woman’s arm.
She snapped around at him. “I can’t just get another one. You think they sell special anti-werewolf amulets at the grocery store?”
The man chopped a finger to his lips. “Watch what you say,” he warned, checking the jovial people passing by for any signs of suspicion, and seeming to find none. “We can come back and look for it tomorrow, but right now, we need to get you into your cell.” The last word he mouthed, and Mavis could only see it because by then she’d crept up closer.
Anyone else overhearing the conversation might’ve gasped at the word werewolf. Or, if they were anything like Mavis, they might’ve cried from laughing so hard the first time someone tried convincing them magic existed, But then, of course, Mavis learned of her own powers, so she was all too aware that what this man was saying was true.
“Before the sun fully sets,” he said, his skittish eyes wandering to the horizon as he wrapped the woman in an arm, and they scurried through the masses.
Mavis tilted her head back to look up at the sky, the colors mimicking the crowd below like a watercolor painting of the rainbow. There was no time for them to hurry home. Within a matter of minutes, the sun would set, and the moon would work its magic on the woman, much like how Mavis worked her magic on metal.
“Well, shit,” Mavis grumbled, realizing not only that she needed to find the amulet, but that she also needed to return it. “Maybe they’ll be nice enough to give me a reward if I find it…”
As Mavis turned to return to her search a little more fervently this time, she bumped into someone, a girl in a rainbow tutu.
Amaya and Mavis stood frozen before each other, taken aback by the strange feel of familiarity overcoming them both, despite never having met. But they both knew why, could tell from the tingle in the air that they were both women of magic.
Amaya blinked at Mavis’s beauty, admiring the confidence she had to have in order to sport such colorful hair. But as Amaya marveled at her sudden craving for cotton candy and wondered if it had something to do with the colors of the Mavis’s braid or the scent of her perfume, her bare hand grazed the macramé purse.
Another vision of the parade filled her view, this time, one from earlier in the day though. There was singing and dancing, and, then she spotted Mavis. Her heart thudded in her chest as Amaya watched the young woman rock and sway in time with the music. In fact, she became so entranced by the rhythm of Mavis’s hips, that she nearly missed her plucking the amulet from around the woman’s neck.
As Amaya lost herself in what felt like a dream, Mavis waved a hand before her face, but she didn’t move. Her eyes had gone blank, which was a shame, because they were beautiful eyes that had glowed like the embers of a fire, before something had snuffed them out.
Mavis would’ve tried shaking her, but to her amazement, resting in Amaya’s hands was the amulet.
“Holy shit,” Mavis said again.
Just then, Amaya blinked. She recognized the woman in front of her as the woman from her vision, the one who would be responsible for all the lives that were about to be lost if Amaya couldn’t find the woman the amulet belonged to.
“It—it was you. You stole the—”
But before she could finish, Mavis snatched the amulet from her hands, and bolted.
Amaya was struck dumbfounded, frozen in place as she watched Mavis dart ahead. Under normal circumstances, her predisposition for quiet, calm nights and not causing a scene, might’ve detoured her from chasing after her, but when she remembered the screams of the people who would die, and the size of the werewolf that would surely devour more of them, she knew she couldn’t care if anyone was watching as she charged after the thief.
“Stop!” she tried yelling over the cheers and music. “You don’t know what you’re doing!”
But Mavis didn’t hear her, and therefore, didn’t look back. Instead, she kept her eyes focused ahead, to the spot where she’d last seen the couple deciding to leave. It was unlikely they had made it very far in the ten seconds that had passed, but she was struggling to find them.
But then she spotted their multi-colored clown wigs, and she veered right, hard, dodging a group of people holding the corners of a giant flag.
Amaya, on the other hand, noticed too late, and found herself running under the flag, the ground beneath reflecting the bright colors of the fabric, and the crowd cheering her as she cleared the other side.
Once she was through, Amaya rounded the group, headed for where she last saw Mavis.
To her surprise, when she found her, Mavis was no longer running. To her even greater surprise, she was handing the amulet over to a woman who, judging from the way she beamed and hopped when she saw it, was the original owner of the charm.
After the woman placed the amulet around her neck and returned to the parade in her partner’s arms, Amaya stepped toward Mavis. “You stole that from her.”
Mavis nodded, watching the couple sway together as they marched. “And?”
“Why give it back?
Mavis scoffed. “Listen, like we need…” But as she stopped the word werewolf from accidentally slipping from her lips, Mavis was struck by something else. “How did you know I took her necklace?”
Amaya felt her face flash as hot as coals. “I didn’t—I just meant that—”
“You have magic too,” Mavis said with wide-eyed wonder. Her gaze settled over Amaya’s one gloved and one un-gloved hand then. “You have the touch! Where you see things by holding objects, right?”
Though Amaya had never told anyone before about her power, she saw little reason to deny it when asked point-blank. “Psychometry, yes.”
Startling poor Amaya half to death, Mavis skipped into the air and squealed in a fit of laughter. “Maybe you can help me find someone then?”
As Mavis dug into her bag to retrieve the only item she still possessed that belonged to her older brother, somehow Amaya knew that she had finally found her purpose.
I recently joined a monthly short story writing "competition" group for fun to get in some more writing time (as I spend most of my time these days editing book two of The Awakened Quarter: Puppets Dream).
This month, our themes were alchemy (turning metal into gold) and psychometry (getting visions from touching objects. In addition, June is also LGBTQ month, so I wanted to write something that would show my support for the LGBTQ community, while also touch on our group's themes. What I discovered are some new and exciting characters that I am honestly looking forward to writing more about (in the near/distant future).
Because I can see this story becoming something larger, I thought I'd share it with you all here. I hope you enjoy!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE SILVER AMULET (unedited)
By Jessaca Willis
With her hands clasped together, Amaya’s voice was barely more than a whisper, as she sang alongside the thousands of other people that flooded the streets like a colorful river.
Like most years she attended Pride, Amaya refrained from wearing anything too extravagant—beyond the rainbow tutu she wore over her leggings—in an effort not to draw too much attention to herself. Not that it was a real concern. When people were at Pride, they were swallowed up in the excitement of their own celebrating, their own freedoms, their own friends and conversations and marching, to notice anyone going out of their way to be overlooked.
Regardless of her desire to stay out of the spotlight, Amaya still loved attending the parade more than anything. It was the one place where she didn’t feel like such an outsider. Even here she had to be careful though, because even here she didn’t truly belong. With so many people nearby, she kept her hands tucked tightly against her body, despite the gloves she wore as a precaution.
Even though Amaya was in a swarm of people so thick that she could only see the back of the heads in front of her, the glint of metal as something fell to the ground still caught her attention. Having little interest in getting trampled, Amaya bent over and snapped back up with the object in hand before the crowd around her had a chance to take another step. With the item tucked tightly against her chest, Amaya weaved through the dense parade and made her way to the sidewalk.
She uncurled her hands, revealing an amulet inside, one simple by design, with just a few swirls of metal encasing a giant opalescent gem.
Amaya surveyed the crowd. She hoped to find someone searching for their lost jewelry, but sadly, she saw no one. Or at least, none that were visible from where she stood.
When she returned her attention to the amulet, her eyes grew wide with recognition. That gem wasn’t just any normal gem. Raising it overhead, Amaya let it catch a ray of light, clouds of blue and purple shifting inside it and confirming her suspicions. A moonstone.
Whoever this amulet belonged to would be very upset when they realized they no longer had it. She looked out over the sea of heads again, but with all of the ribbons and banners, and the stunning headdresses of a group of drag queens that were strutting by, she couldn’t tell if anyone was looking for the charm.
Her throat went dry. There was only one way she would be able to find the person.
Turning her back to the parade, Amaya squeezed herself into the corner of a storefront, and with extreme caution, took off one of her gloves, one finger at a time. Her bare hand hovered over the amulet, uncertain if what she was about to do was a smart idea. After all, she was in the middle of the city, amidst a bunch of strangers, and there was no telling what touching the talisman would do to her. But the longer she waited, the further away its owner would become.
Without another thought, Amaya’s hand plummeted to the amulet.
Everything around her disappeared, as a new world flashed into view. A new world, but the same one. A vision of the parade’s future. She recognized some of the same floats and outfits she’d already seen earlier in the day. Only now, people had brought out their glow sticks and strobe lights, as the moon had started to replace the sun overhead.
If Amaya had thought people were celebratory before, now, hours into the thrill of the day, they were euphoric—Until a snarl rumbled through the air.
Screams followed, the kind that only came moments before death. Within seconds, the peaceful and jubilant parade became a terrifying nightmare. People ran in every direction, not looking back, not bothering who they were leaving behind or knocking over along the way. All that mattered was survival, something none of them were guaranteed much longer.
Amaya shoved her way through the scattering people, searching for what she already knew they were running from, but needing to see it anyways.
Standing eight feet tall, in the middle of the street, and looming over five dead bodies already, was the werewolf the moonstone was meant to protect. It spun around to meet her gaze. But if she expected it to look menacingly, she was mistaken, because the only thing that filled the half-human, half-wolf’s eyes was remorse.
“Help me,” those eyes seemed to scream.
Then the vision cleared, and Amaya found herself leaning against the cool bricks of the store again, without a clue as to how she would find the werewolf before the sun set.
Growing up, Amaya had always wondered why she was so different from all the other children. While they were playing tag and patty-cake, Amaya was kept in isolation and labeled haphephobic—the fancy word for being afraid of being touched—and “prone to dissociative states.” She had always wondered “why me?”
But perhaps now she had an answer. Perhaps this power, today, could be used for something good.
Meanwhile, two floats and a group of fabulously-feathered drag queens ahead, Mavis danced uninhibited against each stranger she crossed with only one thought on her mind: who to pilfer next.
Although Mavis had thought the parade would make for easy money considering how many people would be there, what she hadn’t counted for was that many of the costumes and outfits people were wearing weren’t conducive to valuables. Outfits crafted entirely out of fishnet, spandex, and even body paint, meant that people had to leave anything of value at home. Not that that’s how everyone was dressed, but enough people that it meant she had to be strategic about her targets and how she made her way to them.
With the song slowing to an end, Mavis turned around to face her partner, giving her a coy wink as she leaned in and uttered in her ear, “Happy Pride!”
Though Mavis meant every word, the real reason she let her lips brush against the blushing girl’s ear was to distract her enough that she wouldn’t notice Mavis reaching into her purse, grabbing her wallet, and shoving it into her own macramé bag. Her plan seemed to work, because the girl was still swooning as she twirled off, disappearing in the crowd.
When she was certain the girl was out of sight, Mavis reached into her purse to ogle her spoils from the day thus far. She started with the wallet, pocketing the seven dollars cash before discarding the leather pouch to the ground.
Feeling the worn edges of the book she always kept on hand, Mavis let her hand brush past her brother’s journal, hoping one day to have enough money to hire someone to decipher it. Maybe then she’d have a clue as to where he was.
Next, she admired a number of rings and watches. These items tended to be a little more risky to take in the moment, but less likely to raise suspicion later, especially during events like these because most of her victims would assume they’d fallen off, never once suspecting the sexy minx with the purple mohawk braid they’d been dancing with before their items went missing.
The last memento Mavis reached for though, was by far the coolest she’d ever pocketed. Never before had she seen a gemstone so large as the one in the pendant she’d found earlier.
But when she reached into her purse, she couldn’t find it. Scraping along the bottom of the bag, her hand trailed over every ring and watch, the wad of cash, and even a handful of crumbs from a granola bar from who-knows-when, but the amulet was gone.
“No. No, no, no!” she yelled, her voice drowned out by the other shouts and yips.
Out of everything she’d taken, that amulet had been the only thing of any real value. Everything else was just chump change. She’d use the cash to buy some dinner, before settling home for the evening where she’d use her magic to convert all the silver jewelry into gold to be sold later, earning maybe another week’s worth in rent. But the amulet—now that would fetch a pretty penny as was, without need for alchemy. That amulet was going to earn her enough money to finally hire a translator for her brother’s journal.
Which was why she needed to find it.
Whipping her braid over one shoulder, Mavis began scouring the ground, retracing her steps back through the parade as best she could. Between all the glitter and sequins left in the wake of the marchers, every step she took gave her a new glimmer of hope, only to be snuffed out when she realized whatever item had caught her eye wasn’t the amulet.
“We have to go,” someone whispered.
Sensing the urgency behind his words, Mavis peered over her shoulder to find a familiar man and woman, recognizable by their rainbow face paint and wigs.
“We can get you another one,” he said again, gently tugging at the woman’s arm.
She snapped around at him. “I can’t just get another one. You think they sell special anti-werewolf amulets at the grocery store?”
The man chopped a finger to his lips. “Watch what you say,” he warned, checking the jovial people passing by for any signs of suspicion, and seeming to find none. “We can come back and look for it tomorrow, but right now, we need to get you into your cell.” The last word he mouthed, and Mavis could only see it because by then she’d crept up closer.
Anyone else overhearing the conversation might’ve gasped at the word werewolf. Or, if they were anything like Mavis, they might’ve cried from laughing so hard the first time someone tried convincing them magic existed, But then, of course, Mavis learned of her own powers, so she was all too aware that what this man was saying was true.
“Before the sun fully sets,” he said, his skittish eyes wandering to the horizon as he wrapped the woman in an arm, and they scurried through the masses.
Mavis tilted her head back to look up at the sky, the colors mimicking the crowd below like a watercolor painting of the rainbow. There was no time for them to hurry home. Within a matter of minutes, the sun would set, and the moon would work its magic on the woman, much like how Mavis worked her magic on metal.
“Well, shit,” Mavis grumbled, realizing not only that she needed to find the amulet, but that she also needed to return it. “Maybe they’ll be nice enough to give me a reward if I find it…”
As Mavis turned to return to her search a little more fervently this time, she bumped into someone, a girl in a rainbow tutu.
Amaya and Mavis stood frozen before each other, taken aback by the strange feel of familiarity overcoming them both, despite never having met. But they both knew why, could tell from the tingle in the air that they were both women of magic.
Amaya blinked at Mavis’s beauty, admiring the confidence she had to have in order to sport such colorful hair. But as Amaya marveled at her sudden craving for cotton candy and wondered if it had something to do with the colors of the Mavis’s braid or the scent of her perfume, her bare hand grazed the macramé purse.
Another vision of the parade filled her view, this time, one from earlier in the day though. There was singing and dancing, and, then she spotted Mavis. Her heart thudded in her chest as Amaya watched the young woman rock and sway in time with the music. In fact, she became so entranced by the rhythm of Mavis’s hips, that she nearly missed her plucking the amulet from around the woman’s neck.
As Amaya lost herself in what felt like a dream, Mavis waved a hand before her face, but she didn’t move. Her eyes had gone blank, which was a shame, because they were beautiful eyes that had glowed like the embers of a fire, before something had snuffed them out.
Mavis would’ve tried shaking her, but to her amazement, resting in Amaya’s hands was the amulet.
“Holy shit,” Mavis said again.
Just then, Amaya blinked. She recognized the woman in front of her as the woman from her vision, the one who would be responsible for all the lives that were about to be lost if Amaya couldn’t find the woman the amulet belonged to.
“It—it was you. You stole the—”
But before she could finish, Mavis snatched the amulet from her hands, and bolted.
Amaya was struck dumbfounded, frozen in place as she watched Mavis dart ahead. Under normal circumstances, her predisposition for quiet, calm nights and not causing a scene, might’ve detoured her from chasing after her, but when she remembered the screams of the people who would die, and the size of the werewolf that would surely devour more of them, she knew she couldn’t care if anyone was watching as she charged after the thief.
“Stop!” she tried yelling over the cheers and music. “You don’t know what you’re doing!”
But Mavis didn’t hear her, and therefore, didn’t look back. Instead, she kept her eyes focused ahead, to the spot where she’d last seen the couple deciding to leave. It was unlikely they had made it very far in the ten seconds that had passed, but she was struggling to find them.
But then she spotted their multi-colored clown wigs, and she veered right, hard, dodging a group of people holding the corners of a giant flag.
Amaya, on the other hand, noticed too late, and found herself running under the flag, the ground beneath reflecting the bright colors of the fabric, and the crowd cheering her as she cleared the other side.
Once she was through, Amaya rounded the group, headed for where she last saw Mavis.
To her surprise, when she found her, Mavis was no longer running. To her even greater surprise, she was handing the amulet over to a woman who, judging from the way she beamed and hopped when she saw it, was the original owner of the charm.
After the woman placed the amulet around her neck and returned to the parade in her partner’s arms, Amaya stepped toward Mavis. “You stole that from her.”
Mavis nodded, watching the couple sway together as they marched. “And?”
“Why give it back?
Mavis scoffed. “Listen, like we need…” But as she stopped the word werewolf from accidentally slipping from her lips, Mavis was struck by something else. “How did you know I took her necklace?”
Amaya felt her face flash as hot as coals. “I didn’t—I just meant that—”
“You have magic too,” Mavis said with wide-eyed wonder. Her gaze settled over Amaya’s one gloved and one un-gloved hand then. “You have the touch! Where you see things by holding objects, right?”
Though Amaya had never told anyone before about her power, she saw little reason to deny it when asked point-blank. “Psychometry, yes.”
Startling poor Amaya half to death, Mavis skipped into the air and squealed in a fit of laughter. “Maybe you can help me find someone then?”
As Mavis dug into her bag to retrieve the only item she still possessed that belonged to her older brother, somehow Amaya knew that she had finally found her purpose.
